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  3. Can you imagine Mastodon raising 100 MILLION dollars from a crypto VC fund and failing to disclose it... for a full year?

Can you imagine Mastodon raising 100 MILLION dollars from a crypto VC fund and failing to disclose it... for a full year?

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bluesky
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  • _elena@mastodon.social_ _elena@mastodon.social

    Mike Masnick, who sits on the board of #Bluesky, claims the team was too busy to announce the series B funding (see screenshot).

    But something is fishy.

    Even the VC firm - Bain Capital Crypto - isn't listing Bluesky anywhere on their website: https://baincapitalcrypto.com/portfolio/

    Why the mystery? Was Bluesky afraid of a public backlash & asked to keep the information under wraps?

    Sorry if I keep repeating myself but I will forever be skeptical of Bluesky and think of the tale of the scorpion and the frog.

    Link Preview Image
    A This user is from outside of this forum
    A This user is from outside of this forum
    amoshias@esq.social
    wrote last edited by
    #57

    @_elena oh, Mike. oh, oh, oh, Mike.

    I like the guy and appreciate what he does but just...

    this isn't a thing.

    does he think all the other companies are just sitting around eating bonbons, and this one specific company is busy?

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    • javascript@app.wafrn.netJ javascript@app.wafrn.net

      yeah actually the concept of DID as decentralized identifiers can have its equivalent in the Portable Objects Proposal described here: https://codeberg.org/fediverse/fep/src/branch/main/fep/ef61/fep-ef61.md

      This is just more complex to do in an ecosystem like the fediverse where implementations are (and have been for a long time) less standarized

      mariusor@metalhead.clubM This user is from outside of this forum
      mariusor@metalhead.clubM This user is from outside of this forum
      mariusor@metalhead.club
      wrote last edited by
      #58

      @javascript I thought I was pretty clear in my initial statement: if DIDs are used as primary identifiers for objects, the resulting specification is no longer ActivityPub.

      Unless the SocialCG comes up with ActivityPub 2.0 that has DID as identifiers, I wouldn't call the implementations that use that FEP as ActivityPub compliant.

      @_elena @benroyce @stefan @mat

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      • _elena@mastodon.social_ _elena@mastodon.social

        @benroyce @mat tangentially related but I'm beginning to think that maybe the whole point of the ATmosphere being open is to find a way to capture billions of data points for profiling / monetization purposes? I know everything is public here too, but the language of their press release gave me the creeps.

        I may start referring to them as Blue$ky and the ATmo$phere.

        I mean what's the draw otherwise for VCs and crypto bros?

        jaypeach53@mastodon.socialJ This user is from outside of this forum
        jaypeach53@mastodon.socialJ This user is from outside of this forum
        jaypeach53@mastodon.social
        wrote last edited by
        #59

        @mat @_elena @benroyce B$ky is BullShit.

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        • benroyce@mastodon.socialB benroyce@mastodon.social

          @mariusor @stefan @_elena @mat

          not in an effort to start a fight but just divulging my honest views on the topic:

          so fucking what

          just build shit

          the spec can follow behind later

          waiting for perfect spec structuring before doing anything is an exercise in inertia

          mariusor@metalhead.clubM This user is from outside of this forum
          mariusor@metalhead.clubM This user is from outside of this forum
          mariusor@metalhead.club
          wrote last edited by
          #60

          @benroyce maybe you want to look through my post history before giving me advice to build shit. I'm not speaking from a point of ignorance.

          The reason why some of us are trying to stick to the specification is to maximize compatibility between implementations. Each project adding their little flavour of functionality before even bothering to have a solid common foundation is detrimental to the health of the ecosystem as a whole.

          @stefan @_elena @mat

          benroyce@mastodon.socialB 1 Reply Last reply
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          • markmetz@sfba.socialM markmetz@sfba.social

            @_elena
            Thanks for highlighting this.
            Bsky smells of narrative capture to me, much like Substack, (who are now teaming up with prediction markets)

            bazkie@beige.partyB This user is from outside of this forum
            bazkie@beige.partyB This user is from outside of this forum
            bazkie@beige.party
            wrote last edited by
            #61

            @markmetz @_elena what's narrative capture?

            1 Reply Last reply
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            • mariusor@metalhead.clubM mariusor@metalhead.club

              @benroyce maybe you want to look through my post history before giving me advice to build shit. I'm not speaking from a point of ignorance.

              The reason why some of us are trying to stick to the specification is to maximize compatibility between implementations. Each project adding their little flavour of functionality before even bothering to have a solid common foundation is detrimental to the health of the ecosystem as a whole.

              @stefan @_elena @mat

              benroyce@mastodon.socialB This user is from outside of this forum
              benroyce@mastodon.socialB This user is from outside of this forum
              benroyce@mastodon.social
              wrote last edited by
              #62

              @mariusor @stefan @_elena @mat

              i don't give a shit about your post history. i have no doubt you're quite knowledgeable and i don't think you're ignorant at all

              but i think "stick to the spec" is purposeful impotence

              just build shit and fuck the spec. the spec can follow along later, and if a feature is useful and popular, other projects can copy it

              nevermind that demanding spec authority in a decentralized system is a fool's errand

              just do whatever the fuck you want, fuck specs

              1 Reply Last reply
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              • _elena@mastodon.social_ _elena@mastodon.social

                @benroyce @mat tangentially related but I'm beginning to think that maybe the whole point of the ATmosphere being open is to find a way to capture billions of data points for profiling / monetization purposes? I know everything is public here too, but the language of their press release gave me the creeps.

                I may start referring to them as Blue$ky and the ATmo$phere.

                I mean what's the draw otherwise for VCs and crypto bros?

                wjmaggos@liberal.cityW This user is from outside of this forum
                wjmaggos@liberal.cityW This user is from outside of this forum
                wjmaggos@liberal.city
                wrote last edited by
                #63

                @_elena @benroyce @mat

                imo we should think of social media (the social news feed ala bluesky and mastodon etc) as totally public like blogs you can boost. that's different than messaging and groups that need privacy, what I call social networking.

                I think bluesky's goal is to be the Google/Gmail of all of social media. "it's open so you could use other services but we make it easy and provide a better experience." the way the app view works makes that possible unlike how AP works. enshittify.

                mat@zelk.spaceM 1 Reply Last reply
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                • tedmielczarek@mastodon.socialT tedmielczarek@mastodon.social

                  @_elena all the startups I've worked for have blasted out press releases the moment their funding rounds closed. Part of being a startup means constantly vying for attention. This explanation does not hold up.

                  abucci@buc.ciA This user is from outside of this forum
                  abucci@buc.ciA This user is from outside of this forum
                  abucci@buc.ci
                  wrote last edited by
                  #64
                  @tedmielczarek@mastodon.social @_elena@mastodon.social I have had the same experience. I co-founded a startup in 2016 that managed to secure a funding round, and the VCs themselves were giddy about announcing it as widely as possible. I've consulted for startups both before and after that, and as far as I'm aware every one of them that secured funding rapidly announced it. This explanation from Bluesky does not pass a basic smell test.
                  1 Reply Last reply
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                  • tedmielczarek@mastodon.socialT tedmielczarek@mastodon.social

                    @_elena all the startups I've worked for have blasted out press releases the moment their funding rounds closed. Part of being a startup means constantly vying for attention. This explanation does not hold up.

                    hipsterelectron@circumstances.runH This user is from outside of this forum
                    hipsterelectron@circumstances.runH This user is from outside of this forum
                    hipsterelectron@circumstances.run
                    wrote last edited by
                    #65

                    @tedmielczarek @_elena series B is one of the stages that represents a categorical step up in financing and control structures. series G like sure at that point people tend to stop counting but B is still a champagne event

                    1 Reply Last reply
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                    • benroyce@mastodon.socialB benroyce@mastodon.social

                      @nickapos @_elena

                      yeah but there's a difference between someone screenscraping your posts somewhere

                      and a financially motivated effort by seedy cryptobros *on the inside* linking all sorts of private data

                      - using your email and birthdate to link to other plutocrat data silos

                      - ingesting your private messages

                      - profiling your posting behavior

                      - feeding it all to AI

                      etc

                      nickapos@mastodon.oncrete.ukN This user is from outside of this forum
                      nickapos@mastodon.oncrete.ukN This user is from outside of this forum
                      nickapos@mastodon.oncrete.uk
                      wrote last edited by
                      #66

                      @benroyce @_elena Yeah i completely agree

                      1 Reply Last reply
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                      • _elena@mastodon.social_ _elena@mastodon.social

                        Mike Masnick, who sits on the board of #Bluesky, claims the team was too busy to announce the series B funding (see screenshot).

                        But something is fishy.

                        Even the VC firm - Bain Capital Crypto - isn't listing Bluesky anywhere on their website: https://baincapitalcrypto.com/portfolio/

                        Why the mystery? Was Bluesky afraid of a public backlash & asked to keep the information under wraps?

                        Sorry if I keep repeating myself but I will forever be skeptical of Bluesky and think of the tale of the scorpion and the frog.

                        Link Preview Image
                        cairobraga@gts.cairobraga.comC This user is from outside of this forum
                        cairobraga@gts.cairobraga.comC This user is from outside of this forum
                        cairobraga@gts.cairobraga.com
                        wrote last edited by
                        #67

                        @_elena (can you link the post, please? I'd love to see how people are reacting to this "dog ate my homework"-ass excuse, lol)

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • _elena@mastodon.social_ _elena@mastodon.social

                          Mike Masnick, who sits on the board of #Bluesky, claims the team was too busy to announce the series B funding (see screenshot).

                          But something is fishy.

                          Even the VC firm - Bain Capital Crypto - isn't listing Bluesky anywhere on their website: https://baincapitalcrypto.com/portfolio/

                          Why the mystery? Was Bluesky afraid of a public backlash & asked to keep the information under wraps?

                          Sorry if I keep repeating myself but I will forever be skeptical of Bluesky and think of the tale of the scorpion and the frog.

                          Link Preview Image
                          craig_patrick@mastodon.socialC This user is from outside of this forum
                          craig_patrick@mastodon.socialC This user is from outside of this forum
                          craig_patrick@mastodon.social
                          wrote last edited by
                          #68

                          @_elena @Jerry Curious if there’s a plan to monetize #Bluesky you are aware of? Two points to accent your post:

                          - criticism on #Mastodon initially feels like smearing a rival platform first, investigative reporting second. (Feel free to push back on that, it’s just the vibe I get when I read these articles)

                          - bureaucracy is an issue with brand communication. This MAY be what Bluesky is encountering because the United States needs to have a serious conversation about the illusion of brand

                          jerry@hear-me.socialJ 1 Reply Last reply
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                          • _elena@mastodon.social_ _elena@mastodon.social

                            @mat sure but it's the language they used that creeped me out - it's like they are using this as a selling point for VCs to say: here, collect all these data

                            ulrikehahn@fediscience.orgU This user is from outside of this forum
                            ulrikehahn@fediscience.orgU This user is from outside of this forum
                            ulrikehahn@fediscience.org
                            wrote last edited by
                            #69

                            @_elena @mat reminder, the Bluesky team explicitly mentioned commercial use of their data in their 2024 arXiv preprint:

                            “…as Bluesky grows, there are likely to be multiple professionally-run indexers for various purposes. For example, a company that performs sentiment analysis on social media activity about brands could easily create a whole-network index that provides insights to their clients. Web search engines can incorporate Bluesky activity into their indexes,…” pg. 5

                            it’s been part of the model from the start…

                            https://arxiv.org/pdf/2402.03239

                            mat@zelk.spaceM 1 Reply Last reply
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                            • _elena@mastodon.social_ _elena@mastodon.social

                              Mike Masnick, who sits on the board of #Bluesky, claims the team was too busy to announce the series B funding (see screenshot).

                              But something is fishy.

                              Even the VC firm - Bain Capital Crypto - isn't listing Bluesky anywhere on their website: https://baincapitalcrypto.com/portfolio/

                              Why the mystery? Was Bluesky afraid of a public backlash & asked to keep the information under wraps?

                              Sorry if I keep repeating myself but I will forever be skeptical of Bluesky and think of the tale of the scorpion and the frog.

                              Link Preview Image
                              katzenberger@tldr.nettime.orgK This user is from outside of this forum
                              katzenberger@tldr.nettime.orgK This user is from outside of this forum
                              katzenberger@tldr.nettime.org
                              wrote last edited by
                              #70

                              @_elena

                              Does not add up.

                              Did they secure a $100 million funding en passant, while being otherwise "crazy busy and overwhelmed" by their development work?

                              And if they were instead crazy busy and overwhelmed precisely because of trying to secure that funding, what kept them from taking the final step of a press release?

                              That's not even fishy. It's an insult.

                              1 Reply Last reply
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                              • _elena@mastodon.social_ _elena@mastodon.social

                                Can you imagine Mastodon raising 100 MILLION dollars from a crypto VC fund and failing to disclose it... for a full year? No I can't either.

                                And from their actual press release: "The Atmosphere currently contains about 20 billion public records—the posts, likes, comments and other interactions that bring the ecosystem to life. It's an astonishing collection of what open social infrastructure makes possible."

                                Link Preview Image
                                Bluesky's 2025 $100M Series B Lays Foundation for Open Social Web - Bluesky

                                In April 2025, Bluesky raised $100 million in Series B funding led by Bain Capital Crypto. Since our Series A, we've grown from 13 million to over 43 million global users.

                                favicon

                                Bluesky (bsky.social)

                                How I read it: data harvesting at its finest 💁‍♀️

                                #Bluesky

                                greenwhale@dice.campG This user is from outside of this forum
                                greenwhale@dice.campG This user is from outside of this forum
                                greenwhale@dice.camp
                                wrote last edited by
                                #71

                                @_elena we could ask our founder and CEO John Mastodon about it, for sure. 😁

                                1 Reply Last reply
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                                • ulrikehahn@fediscience.orgU ulrikehahn@fediscience.org

                                  @_elena @mat reminder, the Bluesky team explicitly mentioned commercial use of their data in their 2024 arXiv preprint:

                                  “…as Bluesky grows, there are likely to be multiple professionally-run indexers for various purposes. For example, a company that performs sentiment analysis on social media activity about brands could easily create a whole-network index that provides insights to their clients. Web search engines can incorporate Bluesky activity into their indexes,…” pg. 5

                                  it’s been part of the model from the start…

                                  https://arxiv.org/pdf/2402.03239

                                  mat@zelk.spaceM This user is from outside of this forum
                                  mat@zelk.spaceM This user is from outside of this forum
                                  mat@zelk.space
                                  wrote last edited by
                                  #72

                                  @UlrikeHahn @_elena how is it different from the fediverse? as long as there's a firehose, anyone can crawl mastodon.social or any other instance and do the same

                                  ulrikehahn@fediscience.orgU 1 Reply Last reply
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                                  • mat@zelk.spaceM mat@zelk.space

                                    @UlrikeHahn @_elena how is it different from the fediverse? as long as there's a firehose, anyone can crawl mastodon.social or any other instance and do the same

                                    ulrikehahn@fediscience.orgU This user is from outside of this forum
                                    ulrikehahn@fediscience.orgU This user is from outside of this forum
                                    ulrikehahn@fediscience.org
                                    wrote last edited by
                                    #73

                                    @mat @_elena

                                    it seems both legally different to me and different in design:

                                    Link Preview Image
                                    Bridging to Bluesky: The open social web, consent, and GDPR

                                    There’s been intense discussion across the fediverse, GitHub, blogs, and articles about a bridge that would let you use a Mastodon accou...

                                    favicon

                                    UlrikeHahn (write.as)

                                    mat@zelk.spaceM 1 Reply Last reply
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                                    • wjmaggos@liberal.cityW wjmaggos@liberal.city

                                      @_elena @benroyce @mat

                                      imo we should think of social media (the social news feed ala bluesky and mastodon etc) as totally public like blogs you can boost. that's different than messaging and groups that need privacy, what I call social networking.

                                      I think bluesky's goal is to be the Google/Gmail of all of social media. "it's open so you could use other services but we make it easy and provide a better experience." the way the app view works makes that possible unlike how AP works. enshittify.

                                      mat@zelk.spaceM This user is from outside of this forum
                                      mat@zelk.spaceM This user is from outside of this forum
                                      mat@zelk.space
                                      wrote last edited by
                                      #74

                                      @wjmaggos I agree with you, even if permissive data is coming this year. for the appview part, anyone can build his own and pick the data they want from the pds. there's also dozens of different alternatives already, which limits enchittification

                                      @_elena @benroyce

                                      benroyce@mastodon.socialB wjmaggos@liberal.cityW 2 Replies Last reply
                                      0
                                      • _elena@mastodon.social_ _elena@mastodon.social

                                        Mike Masnick, who sits on the board of #Bluesky, claims the team was too busy to announce the series B funding (see screenshot).

                                        But something is fishy.

                                        Even the VC firm - Bain Capital Crypto - isn't listing Bluesky anywhere on their website: https://baincapitalcrypto.com/portfolio/

                                        Why the mystery? Was Bluesky afraid of a public backlash & asked to keep the information under wraps?

                                        Sorry if I keep repeating myself but I will forever be skeptical of Bluesky and think of the tale of the scorpion and the frog.

                                        Link Preview Image
                                        mastodonmigration@mastodon.onlineM This user is from outside of this forum
                                        mastodonmigration@mastodon.onlineM This user is from outside of this forum
                                        mastodonmigration@mastodon.online
                                        wrote last edited by
                                        #75

                                        @_elena

                                        This is an absurd and transparent lie, that reflects very badly on Mike Masnick.

                                        We are talking about a $100M investment, and he is asking people to believe they were just "too busy." Hogwash.

                                        _elena@mastodon.social_ 1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • ulrikehahn@fediscience.orgU ulrikehahn@fediscience.org

                                          @mat @_elena

                                          it seems both legally different to me and different in design:

                                          Link Preview Image
                                          Bridging to Bluesky: The open social web, consent, and GDPR

                                          There’s been intense discussion across the fediverse, GitHub, blogs, and articles about a bridge that would let you use a Mastodon accou...

                                          favicon

                                          UlrikeHahn (write.as)

                                          mat@zelk.spaceM This user is from outside of this forum
                                          mat@zelk.spaceM This user is from outside of this forum
                                          mat@zelk.space
                                          wrote last edited by
                                          #76

                                          @UlrikeHahn it surely is, but nothing technically prevents anyone to crawl data from https://[any_instance]/public/local automatically. It's even worse on AP because you never really delete a post as it's duplicated on a thousands different instances. Someone already did a firehose of activitypub but I can't remember his @

                                          @_elena

                                          ulrikehahn@fediscience.orgU 1 Reply Last reply
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